For DireSquirrel
by Lucillia
Summary: I wrote this as a reward for DireSquirrel who found something I'd been looking for for me. The combined Shinobi army was defeated and Madara had implemented his Moon's Eye Plan. What the world became afterward however was completely unexpected...


Considering the fact that it had been virtually empty at the time, it was entirely possible that the metropolis they now lived in hadn't had a Little Tokyo district until they showed up. That was if it had existed before...

Sometimes they thought that they had been transported to another world, a world in which everyone but them had blinked and suddenly they'd always been there rather than placed in a Genjutsu as Madara had claimed he'd done before he, Tobi, and the Jyuubi had completely vanished along with their world. This place appeared far too consistent, too intricate, and entirely too alien to be Genjutsu. That, and none of the thousands upon thousands of former ninja who had found themselves in this world could use their Chakra here.

Fortunately, the physical training that they'd gone through during the years they'd spent at the Academy hadn't vanished along with their Chakra because, if Madara had truly wanted to make a world without losers, he'd failed and rather miserably at that. This place where science ruled the day and created monstrosities like that laughing green haired freak, and that monstrous claylike shape-changer, and that plant lady, and that cold freak who were gathering followers amongst those who needed money so they could know where their next meal was coming from was just as corrupt and crime-ridden as Gato's organization had been.

When they'd come into this world with its Tsukuyomi red daytime sky and its starless black nighttime sky that was either a Genjutsu or an Alternate Reality, they'd had nothing but the clothes on their backs as they'd stood in an almost entirely abandoned district filled with run down and half destroyed buildings wondering what had just happened since the battlefield many of them been fighting and dying on had vanished completely. After the initial confusion had faded and the reality of their situation began to set in, there had been a major scramble for territory as the citizens of the major and minor ninja villages that had made up the unified shinobi army staked their claims.

If he'd been in any condition to communicate, Naruto probably could have ended the bloodshed before it got too out of hand. Without the Kages to bring order and keep their troops in line, Naruto would have been the next best thing since people actually listened to him no matter how ridiculous what he was proposing seemed on the surface. Naruto hadn't been an option however because after giving it his all during the struggle against Tobi, Madara, and the Jyuubi he'd fallen on the field of battle and had lain unconscious ever since.

Headlines that they couldn't read at that point and some of them still couldn't read even now had screamed about the gang violence that had erupted in Little Tokyo - violence that had yet to completely settle even now - until the territorial disputes had finally come to something of an end. After they had established their territory and began to set up in what buildings remained, other problems immediately rose to the fore, such as their lack of both food and funds, and the fact that they couldn't understand the language of the people of this world.

Joining the criminal gangs that existed in the wider city as a whole, a city so large that more than three-hundred thousand people Ninja and Civilian alike could pretty much turn up out of nowhere and disappear within its depths without raising too many eyebrows because they were just three-hundred thousand out of several million, had been a matter of pragmatism. Getting an "honest" job when you weren't fluent in the local language and didn't have the necessary paperwork was damn near impossible, and you very quickly quit trying. Morals didn't really enter into the argument as everyone above Genin had already faced the fact that Shinobi often killed for money, and the local criminals were willing to pay for the use of their skills - reduced as they were - since they were a cut above the rest of the usual cannon fodder.

How the law-abiding locals proceeded to view them due to this notwithstanding, a ninja had to eat after all...

Sakura sighed as she turned her gaze away from the shadowed moon which seemed to take up nearly a quarter of the sky but did little to illuminate the unrelenting darkness of the night, a darkness that never truly went away no matter how many lights you turned on. Even in daylight under a bright summer sun something about the city seemed to be shadowed, and it wasn't because of the massive sky scrapers that dwarfed even the tallest buildings in Amegakure which formed the man-made walls of the vast "Downtown" canyons through which cars and people flowed like water in a river, though they tended to cast massive shadows of their own.

Going through the roof access door that had been propped open for this purpose, she made her way downstairs to the apartment which she shared with Hinata and Tenten and Naruto who'd yet to open his eyes. It was her turn to keep vigil over the boy who had tried and failed to save them all.

"Hey Ino-pig." she said softly as she brushed her hand against the photograph of her friend who had been killed during her last job for that green haired freak as she always did when she returned to the studio apartment that the girls of the Konoha Twelve had all shared after they'd fought tooth and nail to get it.

As she moved to relieve Tenten so the other girl could get some sleep, she noticed that Konohamaru was visiting like he often did and talking to Naruto even though it was pretty much useless. Naruto had never responded to anyone or anything no matter how many healing jutsus she and Hinata had tried. Tsunade might've...

"...And then everything just froze..." Konohamaru was saying, likely nattering on about his last job.

As Konohamaru told his tale about his mission with the jerk with the freeze ray, a light with a shadow at the center of it split the night reflecting off of the clouds that had begun to gather around the pale washed out moon. That shadowy bat that was held within a perfect circle of illumination brought worry then sadness and despair with it every time it appeared, because it meant that someone wouldn't be making it home that night.

Though it could be very easy to hate Bruce Wayne because he'd sent any number of theirs to prison - or worse, Arkham - and escalated fights to the point that not all of the combatants survived, she didn't envy him his job. Being a voice for law and order in a city that didn't seem to want it would take a toll on anybody, and a massive one at that.

Besides, being Batman was just such a Naruto thing to do...


End file.
